Demons in pigs. Gospel reading: God cast out demons, but people drove Him out for it

There is a famous parable in the Gospels about how Jesus healed a demoniac by transferring demons from a man to a herd of pigs, which then rushed into the sea. This part of the Gospel is canonically read over those who, according to the Church, are possessed by an evil spirit or an incomprehensible disease, an ailment caused by the possession of demons in a person. Almost pure psychiatry early stages of its origin. And almost the same as modern psychiatry– all attempts to help are often in vain. Why? Could it be different? Is it possible to alleviate the suffering of the sick? Yes, it can, yes, it can. And why it often happens “differently” - that’s what we’ll talk about. And what needs to be done for this - in order to still help - you will understand after reading my psychological considerations.

This parable seems strange and incomprehensible to many people, and the actions of Jesus seem almost unfair and evil - for many reasons. Atheists generally laugh at this parable, showing by its example how asocial Christianity is.

Today we will try to understand this parable by analyzing all the incomprehensible places in it and connecting the Jungian theory of the group unconscious to its interpretation. So, first things first.

Let's start with the gospel story itself

Possessed Near a certain village, on the outskirts of all decent citizens, he lived possessed man from the same village. The demons tormented him so much that he no longer wore any clothes and slept in coffins, evicted from the village not so much by people as by his illness.

He ran out to Jesus, and Jesus said to the demons inside him, “Get out of this man.” A public herd of pigs was grazing nearby. The demons asked Jesus to put them in these pigs. Jesus allowed. Demons moved into the pigs, the pigs, going mad, rushed from the cliff into the sea, and... this abyss swallowed them up without a trace.

Seeing this, the swine herders ran quickly to the village to report what had happened to the owners of the missing animals.

The population of the town came out to Jesus, saw how the former demoniac was sitting, washed and dressed at the feet of Christ, in their right mind and with bright eyes, they did not see their pigs and told Jesus to leave their place.

That's all.

Pig-piggy bank: Historical context of the “problem of wealth and luck” This gospel story is very well understood without any interpretation - by old-school village people, but it completely eludes the understanding of the “city people”, who think that buns grow on trees.

What is a pig for former times and, above all, for a village resident? The pig is a symbol of wealth and good luck. “Du hast Schwein” – the Germans still say. That is, literally: “You have a pig.” What would that mean? And the fact that: “You’re lucky, lucky one.”

When a fattened pig is slaughtered in November-December, its owner receives a lot of money - you never dreamed of so much. This is similar to annual bonuses for the top management of a good company. And if the peasant does not receive money, then he receives abundant food for himself, his children and his household - for the whole year.

The beauty of a pig is that it almost doesn’t need any special feeding at all; everyone, even the “city dwellers,” knows that the pig was traditionally fed with waste from the dinner table, the so-called slop. And she magically grew fat on them.

And a pig is dirty, it doesn’t need to be washed and groomed like a cow, it likes to be dirty, that’s its essence. A pig is about as dirty as money.

But let's get back to our pigs. The attractiveness of pig farming lies in the fact that, with almost no special effort, in a year you get a mind-boggling profit on your farm - a pig weighing under a ton is like a bag of gold on the threshold of your house... And dress up, and take a walk, and not worry about what will you live on all year...

“The rich get even richer” or Porkiness - as it is. Why else is a pig a traditional (but forgotten by us) symbol of wealth and good luck? There is, therefore, one more tricky point here... The whole point is that in order to get such a profit at the end of the year, the peasant himself must already be initially - a little rich, according to at least, not exactly poor.

Judge for yourself - if the peasant is poor and undernourished himself, then where will he get the delicious, abundant slop from the table to pour it into the pig’s trough?

That is, the pig feeds on the owner from excess, and only the one who is already wealthy, stands firmly on his feet, even rich, she rewards even more, fabulously. Well, for those who are poor - excuse me. A beggar cannot afford to keep a pig. Traditionally, poor villagers sought a compromise - they released their pigs to graze in the forests, but risked getting caught by the lord who owned the forest or... by a wolf. Pigs spoiled the forest, that's a fact. Yes, and on free grazing a pig, although it will feel healthy, will not get as fat as on home slops.

It is clear that if a peasant decided to fatten a pig, he trembled for it more than we tremble for our cars, taken on credit.

That is why, from time immemorial, two strange sayings have developed among the people. When gloomy peasants wanted to complain about their lives and talk about their poverty, they said this: “What kind of pigs do we have? We ourselves... are like pigs!

As you can now guess, the peasants did not mean that they were dirty or boorish. They meant that they had to eat up the scraps from their meager table to the bottom, rake out every crumb themselves - what usually, in generous times, is taken to the pig barn, and they cook fresh for themselves.

And the second saying. When someone wanted to speak bitterly about the callousness of the local population, he said this:

“The local peasant would rather feed a pig than give a piece to the poor.”

When, as a child, I encountered this sentence, I thought that in this way the evil and greedy peasant kulaks expressed subtle disrespect for their neighbors who stood below them on the ladder of fortune. Like, I won’t give it to you, a fool, but I’ll give it to a pig.

Only now did I understand what these peasants’ real reason was. The whole horror is that they are far from idle people, they had no intention of “subtly insulting” anyone!

On the contrary, they acted as reasonable, “adults,” serious people - fathers and mothers of families, owners, concerned about their home and its well-being.

In fact, the real owner counts every piece. And a piece of scraps served to a pig goes into action - for next year the pig will be slaughtered, there will be something to eat, and the children will have new clothes. Why give a piece of food to the poor? What good can this do?.. Unless in heaven? But the tight-fisted peasant didn’t really believe in Heaven. His thinking was concrete and material.

However, modern people with higher education and abstract thinking - not far removed from the peasant kulak of fabulous times.

And so we gradually return to the parable about the demoniac and Jesus...

Cursed treasure Everyone knows from fairy tales and legends of the Renaissance that treasures and treasures, gold and gems– cursed and guarded by devils. Because they are usually obtained in a way that it is better not to tell children about at night.

Murders, ruin of widows, sinking of ships. The curses and torments of the dying fall on what has been taken away and cry out to heaven. Gold absorbs stories. The stories are mostly scary, and at least one is funny...

Famous jewelry, passing from hand to hand, attracted murders and crimes.

Cursed treasures, chests of goods, a winning lottery ticket... Husbands quarreled with their wives, innkeepers killed a guest. Sole owners barricaded themselves against thieves and went crazy.

For a peasant, far from luxury, culture and civilization, rubies and diamonds are worth nothing. He has “one currency” and one understanding of “treasure” - a pig. Therefore, what for a “cultured” person is embodied in a savings book or in a pot-bellied chest with beads and pearls – for a collective farmer living on subsistence farming is embodied in the well-fed figure of a pig.

The pig is a prototype of a bank deposit with interest, a living piggy bank.

Therefore, it is not surprising that when Jesus infused demons into a herd of pigs grazing nearby and they died by throwing themselves off a cliff into the sea, the peasants asked Jesus... to leave. It's strange that they didn't kill him.

And now we will consistently answer a number of important, summing up questions.

Question No. 1 Why did the demons ask Jesus to move them into a herd of pigs? And I’ll answer you with a counter question: “How many people do you think the peasants turned away before in order to better feed their fattening pig?”

For a peasant, we repeat, a pig is the same as for a city dweller - his passbook or a rare diamond. Why shouldn’t a pig begin to attract “evil” to itself, just as the townspeople’s treasures do?

Why did the demons ask Jesus to place them in a herd of pigs? Because like attracts like. They are already accustomed to guarding treasures. Money, gold, property - acquired unjustly, with insults to others, this is that familiar, convenient “hotel” for them, in which demons “stay” when descending to earth.

Question No. 2 Where do sick people come from and what is the group unconscious? Here we come to the most subtle theory, which was once casually formulated by Carl Gustav Jung. The group unconscious is an invisible superstructure over a small group of people. “The mutual responsibility smears like tar.” Invisible tar. Invisible - for the time being... Until someone gets sick - incurably and eloquently. Who will become a mirror of the sins of the community.

When Jesus asked the demons, “How many of you?” the demons answered: “Legion.” Legion of sins and evil deeds...

The sins of the community were cast in the body of the poor demoniac, a neighbor in the group unconscious. As if in a magic mirror, he showed his fellow villagers the state of health of the entire village as a whole. The curse has almost fallen on the village, but no one has realized this yet. Now, if their cattle started dying, their children getting sick, their houses burning...

In the meantime, one demon-possessed person was resettled in the catacombs and quickly forgotten about him, just as one forgets about other people’s troubles. Are they strangers?..

Question #3 What did Jesus do? Imagine that Jesus came to us, modern people and he said, having gathered you and me, thus.

There is one person whom you all know very well. So, he got very sick. Do you know how he suffers? You say: “We know, we heard, poor, poor thing.”

And Jesus continues: “Would you like him to be completely healed?” You and I answer: “Yes, yes! What a question! He is such a good person!

And then Jesus tells us: “And you know, he has already been healed, I healed him!” and shows us a video to make us believe. And in the video, the one who could no longer be looked at is smiling and waving, plump, tanned, somewhere at sea, abroad, in a sanatorium and sending us greetings.”

And then Jesus says: “Do you know how I healed him? Listen."

Here you have a granny’s apartment, which you rent out to tenants, and you have shares. And you were appointed boss, given your own office and increased your salary.

And you have a book and there are 300 thousand on it. And you have the latest iPhone. But you have a very interesting gift - to charm all men, your friends are surprised. And you know how to walk the catwalk and wear any clothes like a royal robe.

So, I looked at you and saw that you had long been using all these gifts that, by the way, I allowed you to have, but it was of no use to those around you except yourself. You took everything for yourself. You were proud and offended people. You did not give a piece of bread to the one who asked. You stopped communicating with poor relatives. Can I not remind you how you got your grandmother’s apartment? Can I not tell you what your iPhone means to you?

In general, all these things that you have, they have so much evil attached to them, you won’t believe it.

And so, when I drove out the disease, it rushed to where it was most comfortable - dirt reaches out to dirt. I didn't want it to spill over your heads. Or it has devoured your only dwellings in which you live. I chose your pigs.

Will you be very upset if I tell you the last thing now: an apartment, an iPhone, 300 thousand on a book and a talent for charm - drowned in the sea after throwing yourself off a cliff? Want to talk on Skype with your friend who can now talk and smile?

We were silent and said to Jesus: “Get out of our village. Please go away." And turning around, they walked away to their empty barns.

People committed injustice before God, and then became angry with Him. Oh people, Who has the right to be angry with whom?

They shut their godless lips and thought: “Let us not mention the name of God so that it disappears from this world!” Oh, unfortunate people, in this huge world your mouth is in the minority. Haven't you seen and heard how a dam makes a river sound? Without a dam, the river is silent and silent, but the dam loosens its tongue. Every drop begins to sound.

And your dam will do the same: it will loosen the tongues of the dumb and make the dumb speak. If your lips cease to confess the name of God, you will be horrified to hear how it is confessed even by the dumb and speechless. Indeed, if you remain silent, then the stones will cry out. Even if all the people on earth are silent, the grass will speak. Even if all people on earth erase the name of God from their memory, it will be written with a rainbow in the sky and fire on every grain of sand. Then the sand will become people, and people will become sand.

The heavens will tell the glory of God, but the firmament will proclaim His handiwork. Day of days vomits the verb, and night of night the mind proclaims(Ps. 18:2-3). This is what the God-seer and God-singer says. What are you saying? You are contemptuously silent about God - and therefore the stones will speak; and when the stones speak, you will want to speak, but you will not be able to. It will be taken away from you and given to the stones. And the stones will become people, and you will be stones.

It happened in the old days that hard-mouthed people looked at the face of the Son of God and did not recognize Him, and the bonds of their tongue were not loosed in order to glorify Him. Then the Living God opened his mouth to the demons, so that they would shame people by recognizing the Son of God. Demons, which are worse than stones and cheaper than sand, cried out in the presence of the Son of God, while people stood near Him, overcome by muteness. And if that which had completely fallen away from God was forced to confess the name of God, how could sinless stones, blindly submitting to God’s will, not do this!

The Lord instructs people not only through the heavens, filled with angels and decorated with stars, not only through the earth, all covered with signs of the existence of God, but even through demons - just to provide the atheists, who are rapidly descending into hell, with the opportunity to at least be ashamed of something and rebel , and save your souls from the underworld, fire and stench.

Since even the elect who followed Christ on earth showed little faith, the Lord led them to places of the most impenetrable pagan darkness in order to expose and shame them with what would happen. And what happened is described in today's Gospel.

And when He arrived on the other side in the country of Gergesin, He was met by two demoniacs who came out of the graves, very fierce, so that no one dared to pass that way. Gerges and Gadara were cities in the land of the pagans, on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. These were two cities among ten that once existed on the shores of this sea. The evangelists Mark and Luke mention Gadara instead of Gergesa: this only means that the two cities were nearby and that the event being described took place not far from both cities. Evangelists Mark and Luke mention one demoniac, while Matthew mentions two. The first mention one of the two, who was more terrible and, as a terror to the whole area, better known, while Matthew mentions both, since both were healed by the Lord. And that one of them was more famous than his comrade is evident from the description of the holy evangelist Luke, who says that this possessed man was from the city - one person from the city. Being a city dweller, he should have been better known in the city than the other demoniac, who, apparently, was from the village. It also follows from Luke’s words that this man was possessed by demons for a long time and that they tormented him for a long time Consequently, he had been ill for a long time and, due to his long-term illness, was well known throughout this area. That he raged much more fiercely and viciously than his comrade is evident from Luke’s remark: people tied him with chains and bonds, but he broke the bonds and was driven by a demon into the desert. So, this is the reason why the evangelists Mark and Luke remember only one demoniac, although there were two of them. Even today we often use a similar method of describing events, remembering, for example, only the leader of a captured band of robbers. And although a whole gang of robbers led by an ataman was caught, we say that such and such an ataman of the robbers was caught. Evangelists do the same. And while Mark and Luke supplement Matthew's narrative with one detail, namely, the description of the main possessed person, Matthew supplements Mark and Luke with another detail - the mention of both possessed persons.

These possessed people lived in coffins, and they came out of the coffins and wandered through the desert, and frightened people in the fields and on the roads, especially on the road near which their coffins were located. Pagans buried their dead most often near paths and roads, which was not uncommon among Jews. Thus, Rachel’s tomb is located on the road leading from Jerusalem to Bethlehem; Manasseh's tomb near the road to Dead Sea.

Having taken possession of two human beings, the demons began to use them as their tools to cause harm to other people. For main feature people who have been possessed by unclean spirits - to do only abominations and evil. They were naked of every good thing. And not wearing clothes, - says one of them. It seems that not only his body was naked, but also his soul was not clothed with any good, nor with any gift of the Spirit of God, but was completely naked and empty of good, which is God’s gift. And both were so cruel and evil that no one dared to pass that way.

And so they cried out: What have you to do with us, Jesus, Son of God? You came here ahead of time to torment us. The most important thing in this demonic cry is that the demons recognized Jesus as the Son of God and confessed it loudly in terrible fear. So that people would be ashamed who looked at the face of the Lord and could not know Him or, having known Him, did not dare to acknowledge and openly confess (“Since both the disciples and the people called Him a man, therefore now demons come and declare His Divinity.” Zigaben). The demons did not actually confess Christ with a feeling of joy and exultation, as a person who has found a great treasure joyfully exclaims, or as the Apostle Peter exclaimed: You are Christ, the Son of the Living God(Matthew 16:16); but they screamed in fear and horror, seeing their Judge in front of them. And yet they shouted and confessed the One whose name they fear most, and hide it from people, and erase it from the heart of man. They screamed in agony and despair, like many people who only in agony and despair open their mouths to utter the name of God.

What do you care about us, Jesus, Son of God?- the demons ask. That is: what is common between You and us? Why Your unexpected and unwanted visit? What agreement is there between Christ and Belial?(2 Cor. 12:7)? No agreement. That is why the servants of Belial, tormentors of people, ask Christ why He came to them? And wherein: it's too early to torture us. So they are waiting doomsday and torment at the end of time. The very presence of Christ means for them a torment more terrible than light for a mole or fire for a spider. In the absence of Christ, demons are so shameless and daring that people possessed by them are placed lower than beasts and fill the entire surrounding area with fear, so no one dared to go that way. And in the presence of Christ, they are not only slavishly afraid, but also cowardly submissive - like any tyrant before his judge - for, behold, they humbly began to ask the Lord not to send them into the abyss. And they asked Jesus not to command them to go into the abyss. No matter what he commands - because, therefore, if He commands them, they will be forced to go. Such is the authority and power of Christ. And the abyss is their true home and the place of their torment. The perspicacious prophet speaks about the prince of demons: How you fell from the sky, Lucifer, son of the dawn! crashed to the ground, trampling the nations. But you are cast into hell, into the depths of the underworld(Is.14:12,15), where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Because of human sins, by God's permission, demons enter people. And they feel better in people than in the abyss. For when they are among people, they torment people, and when they are in the abyss, they torment themselves. Being among people, they also experience great torment, but this torment is weakened by the fact that they are shared by someone else. The demon is a dirty trick on the flesh, thorn in the flesh, as the apostle who felt his presence calls him (2 Cor. 12:7). Through the flesh, as if on a ladder, he climbs to the soul, clings to the human heart and mind - until he decomposes, disfigures, and devastates everything, depriving him of Divine beauty and purity, reason and truth, love and faith, hope for good and the will to good. Then the demon will sit in a person, as if on his throne, take both the soul and the human body in his hands - and the person will become for him a cattle on which he rides, a pipe on which he plays, a beast through which he bites. Such were the possessed people spoken of in the Gospel. It is not said that they themselves saw Christ or knew Him, or turned to Him, or that they even had any kind of conversation with Him. All this was done by the demons that possessed them. The possessed do not seem to exist: they are like two dead coffins, which the demons push in front of them and drive them away with their whips. To heal such people means to raise the dead, and Furthermore. For dead man there is a soul separated from the body. If the soul is in the hands of God, He can return it to the body - and the body will come to life. But what happened to these possessed people was that worse than death. Their souls are stolen and enslaved by demons, they are held in the hands of demons. This means that the human soul must be taken away from the demon, the demon must be expelled from the person and his soul must be returned to the person. Therefore, the miracle of the healing of the demoniac is at least equal to the miracle of the resurrection of the dead, if not greater.

"You came here ahead of time torment us! - the demons say to Christ. This means they already know that torture awaits them in the end. Oh, if only sinful people could realize at least this: that torment awaits them too, and no less than that expected by demons! Demons know that in the end the human race, their main prey, will be torn out of their hands, and they will be cast into a dark abyss, where they will only have to gnaw and devour each other. The great prophet speaks of the prince of demons that he will be defeated outside his tomb(that is, outside the body of possessed people), like a despised branch, and further - like a trampled corpse(Isaiah 14:19). And the Lord himself testifies: I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning(Luke 10:18). Sinners will also see this in the end, when for their sins they fall along with this lightning into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels(Matthew 25:41).

And while the demons begged Christ with fear and trembling, a large herd of pigs about two thousand, grazing peacefully in the distance on the shore. And the demons asked the Lord: if you drive us out, then send us to the herd of pigs. In other words: just don’t command us to go into the abyss, but let us at least go into the bodies of pigs. If you kick us out! Do not speak from a person, they don’t even want to mention the human name - they hate it so much. For of all the creatures in the universe, demons hate nothing so much as man, and they envy no one and nothing so much as man. And our Lord Jesus Christ specifically emphasizes this word - man: come out, unclean spirit, from this man! They don’t want to leave a person; they would with incomparably greater pleasure remain in people, instead of going into pigs. Why do they need pigs? If demons can turn people into pigs, then what worse can they do to pigs? Otherwise, and when they enter into pigs or some other creature, their malice is directed against man. And through pigs they will try to harm a person; if nothing else, then at least by drowning the pigs and making people angry with God. Therefore, when there is a question about the empty abyss, pigs are preferable to them than the abyss.

And He said to them: Go. And they went out and went into the swine herd. And so, the entire herd of pigs rushed down a steep slope into the sea and died in the water. In the same way, the evil spirits could have forced those two unfortunates to drown themselves in the sea, if the power of God had not prevented them. It happens, however, and quite often, that mentally ill people either fall to their death, throw themselves from a height, or drown themselves, or throw themselves into the fire, or hang themselves. Evil demons force them to do this. For their goal is not only to poison human life, but also to destroy the soul both for this and for that world. However, it often happens that God, for His wise reasons, protects people from such death.

But why did our Lord Jesus Christ send evil spirits specifically to pigs? He could have sent them into trees or stones, but why into pigs? Not to fulfill the desires of demons, but to bring people to their senses. Where there are pigs, there is uncleanness, and unclean spirits love uncleanness; where it does not exist, they create it themselves; where there is little of it, they quickly manage to seduce and cleverly turn the small into the big. And if they move into even the purest person, they will soon pile up swinish filth in him. And by the fact that the pigs immediately rushed into the sea and died, the Lord wants to show us: greed and gluttony are bad helpers in the fight against demonic forces, and to remind us of fasting. Which animal is more greedy and gluttonous than pigs? See how the demons quickly took possession of them and destroyed them! This is what happens to greedy and gluttonous people, who think that through overeating they accumulate strength in themselves. Meanwhile, they accumulate not strength, but weakness - both physical and spiritual. Saint Basil the Great wrote: “I know that doctors do not prescribe various foods to the sick, but abstinence and fasting. Wouldn’t you say that it is easier for sailors to save an overloaded boat than a moderately loaded and light one?” ( Word 10, about fasting).

Gluttons are spineless people, weak in front of people and even weaker in front of demons. There is nothing easier for demons than to push them into the sea of spiritual death and drown them in it! But from all this it is also clear how terrible the power of demons is when God does not restrain it. The demons, who were in just two people, in a few moments took possession of more than two thousand pigs and drowned them all. But first God held them back until Christ came - to show His power and authority over them; and here God allowed them to show their strength. If God had allowed it, in a few moments the demons would have done to all the people on earth the same thing they did to the pigs. But God is a Lover of mankind, and His boundless love keeps us alive and protects us from the most fierce and terrible enemies.

But, someone will say, wasn’t it a pity for the Lord that, firstly, so many pigs died, and secondly, such damage was caused to the inhabitants? It is again the devil who leads people to such thoughts, as if wanting to appear more compassionate than Christ! But what are pigs compared to short-day grass? And if God does not feel sorry for the white lilies of the field, which today are clothed in greater luxury than King Solomon, and tomorrow will be thrown into the oven, why should He feel sorry for the pigs? Or perhaps it is more difficult for God to create a pig than a lily of the field? But someone will say again: not for the sake of beauty, but for the sake of benefit. But does a pig bring benefit to a person only when it nourishes and fattens his body, but not when it helps to enlighten his soul? After all, here we're talking about just about the latter. You are better than many small birds, - the Lord said to the people. Isn't it better and not people are more important and many pigs - even some two or three thousand pigs? Let everyone think about himself and his own cost, and he will quickly come to the conclusion that the lesson taught to humanity through this incident with the pigs was very cheap. Because it was necessary to clearly - and almost rudely - show the stupefied human race, firstly, the devil's uncleanness and, secondly, the devil's power. No words in the world could express this as clearly as the rabies and death of pigs, which were attacked by evil spirits. And what words could convince the pagans from Gergesa and Gadara, if even such a terrible and obvious proof - not proof, but a demonstration - still could not awaken them from their sinful sleep, stop them from the abyss into which they, like pigs, were mercilessly dragged demons, and teach faith in the almighty Christ!

For this is what happened next: the shepherds ran and they told it in the city and in the villages. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they asked Him to depart from their borders. Fear and trembling gripped both the shepherds and the inhabitants, and they were horrified. They all saw something unprecedented and unheard of: the demoniacs, who had been causing them trouble for years, sat at the feet of Jesus, calm and in their right mind. And they heard from the apostles and from their shepherds the story of how Christ healed people possessed by demons, how a legion of evil spirits shuddered with fear at the very appearance of Christ, how in fear they begged Him to send them at least to the pigs, if they were forbidden to be in people, and finally, like the unclean, like a whirlwind, they took possession of the pigs and threw them into the depths of the sea. They heard all this, they understood all this well, seeing two new people, purified and resurrected, who had just been worse than two dead; and they looked into the face of the Lord, who stood before them, meek and humble, as if it was not He who had performed a miracle greater than if he had raised Mount Gergesin and thrown it into the sea. And out of all this, only one thing stuck in the minds and hearts of the stupefied residents, namely: that their pigs were irretrievably lost. Instead of falling on their knees and thanking the Lord for saving their two brothers, they regret that they lost the pigs! Instead of inviting the Lord to visit, they ask Him to leave as soon as possible. Instead of singing the praises of God, they lament over the pigs. But do not rush to condemn these pig-loving Gergesinians - first take a look at today’s society and count all your pig-loving fellow citizens, who, like the Gergesinians, value their pigs more than the lives of their fellows. Or do you think that there are few people today, even those who make the sign of the cross and confess Christ with their lips and tongue, who would, without hesitation, decide to kill two people in order to acquire two thousand pigs? Or do you think that there are many among you who would sacrifice two thousand pigs to save the lives of two insane people? Oh, let all such people be covered with deep shame, and let them not condemn the Gergesinians before they condemn themselves. If the Gergesinians rose from their graves today and began to count, they would count a huge number of like-minded people in Christian Europe. They, at least, asked Christ to move away from them, and the Europeans are driving Christ away from them - just to remain alone, alone with their pigs and with their rulers - demons!

This whole event, from beginning to end, contains another, even deeper inner meaning. But what we have said is enough to edify, warn and awaken the one who feels in own body like in a coffin; who notices the action of demonic power in his passions, binding him with iron bonds and chains and dragging him into the abyss of destruction; who, despite this, values the person in himself, that is, his soul, above all pigs, all livestock, all earthly possessions and wealth - and is ready to pay the Doctor with all this for healing from his illness.

The Gospel story ends with the words: Then He, getting into the boat, crossed back and arrived at His city. He did not say a word to the Gergesinians. How can words help where such great Divine miracles have not helped? He didn't reproach them. He silently descended from the mountain, entered the boat and sailed away from them. What meekness, what patience, what divine height! How insignificant is the victory of that commander (Caesar) who proudly wrote to his Senate: “I came, I saw, I conquered!” Christ came, saw, conquered and remained silent. And, remaining silent, he made His victory wondrous and eternal. And let the pagans learn from the example of this proud commander; we will learn from the example of the gentle Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't force himself on anyone. But whoever accepts Him, accepts Life, and whoever moves away from Him remains in a pigsty, in eternal madness and eternal death.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners, heal and save us! Honor and glory are due to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity, Consubstantial and Indivisible, now and ever, at all times and forever. Amen.

Diseases and their healing - the theory of the group unconscious. What is wealth and what is community health - look for answers in gospel parable about a herd of pigs.

There is a famous parable in the Gospels about how Jesus healed a demoniac by transferring demons from a man to a herd of pigs, which then rushed into the sea. This part of the Gospel is canonically read over those who, according to the Church, are possessed by an evil spirit or an incomprehensible disease, an ailment caused by the possession of demons in a person. Almost pure psychiatry in the early stages of its inception. And almost the same as with modern psychiatry - all attempts to help are often in vain. Why? Could it be different? Is it possible to alleviate the suffering of the sick? Yes, it can, yes, it can. And why it often happens “differently” - that’s what we’ll talk about. And what needs to be done for this - in order to still help - you will understand after reading my psychological considerations.

Let's start with the gospel story itself

Possessed

Near a certain village, on the outskirts of all decent citizens, there lived a possessed man from the same village. The demons tormented him so much that he no longer wore any clothes and slept in coffins, evicted from the village not so much by people as by his illness.

Seeing this, the swine herders ran quickly to the village to report what had happened to the owners of the missing animals.

That's all.

Piggy Bank: Historical Context of the “Problem of Wealth and Luck”

This gospel story is very well understood without any interpretation - by the village people of the old school, but it completely eludes the understanding of the "city people" who think that buns grow on trees.

And a pig is dirty, it doesn’t need to be washed and groomed like a cow, it likes to be dirty, that’s its essence. A pig is about as dirty as money.

But let's get back to our pigs. The attractiveness of pig farming lies in the fact that, with almost no special effort, in a year you will receive a mind-boggling profit on your farm - a pig weighing under a ton is like a bag of gold on the threshold of your house... And dress up, and take a walk, and not worry about what you will live on all year...

“The rich get even richer” or Disgusting - as it is

Why else - a pig is a traditional (but forgotten by us) symbol of wealth and good luck? There is, therefore, one more tricky point here... The whole point is that in order to receive such a profit at the end of the year, the peasant himself must initially be a little rich, at least not completely poor.

Judge for yourself - if the peasant is poor and undernourished himself, then where will he get the delicious, abundant slop from the table to pour it into the pig’s trough?

That is, the pig feeds on the owner from excess, and only the one who is already wealthy, stands firmly on his feet, even rich, she rewards even more, fabulously. Well, for those who are poor - excuse me. A beggar cannot afford to keep a pig. Traditionally, poor villagers sought a compromise - they released their pigs to graze in the forests, but risked getting caught from the lord who owned the forest or... from a wolf. Pigs spoiled the forest, that's a fact. Yes, and on free grazing a pig, although it will feel healthy, will not get as fat as on home slops.

It is clear that if a peasant decided to fatten a pig, he trembled for it more than we tremble for our cars, taken on credit.

And the second saying. When someone wanted to speak bitterly about the callousness of the local population, he said this:

“The local peasant would rather feed a pig than give a piece to the poor.”

Only now did I understand what these peasants’ real reason was. The whole horror is that they are far from idle people, they had no intention of “subtly insulting” anyone!

On the contrary, they acted as reasonable, “adults,” serious people - fathers and mothers of families, owners, concerned about their home and its well-being.

In fact, the real owner counts every piece. And a piece of scraps given to the pig goes into use - next year the pig will be slaughtered, there will be something to eat, and the children will have new clothes. Why give a piece of food to the poor? What good can this do?.. Unless in heaven? But the tight-fisted peasant didn’t really believe in Heaven. His thinking was concrete and material.

However, modern people with higher education and abstract thinking are not far removed from the peasant kulak of fabulous times.

And so we gradually return to the parable about the demoniac and Jesus...

Cursed treasure

Everyone knows from fairy tales and legends of the Renaissance that treasures and treasures, gold and precious stones are cursed and protected by devils. Because they are usually obtained in a way that it is better not to tell children about at night.

Famous jewelry, passing from hand to hand, attracted murders and crimes.

Cursed treasures, chests of goods, a winning lottery ticket... Husbands quarreled with their wives, innkeepers killed a guest. Sole owners barricaded themselves against thieves and went crazy.

The pig is a prototype of a bank deposit with interest, a living piggy bank.

And now we will consistently answer a number of important, summing up questions.

Question No. 1 Why did the demons ask Jesus to move them into a herd of pigs?

And I’ll answer you with a counter question: “How many people do you think the peasants turned away before in order to better feed their fattening pig?”

Question No. 2 Where do sick people come from and what is the group unconscious?

Here we come to the most subtle theory, which was once casually formulated by Carl Gustav Jung. The group unconscious is an invisible superstructure over a small group of people. “The mutual responsibility smears like tar.” Invisible tar. Invisible - for the time being... Until someone gets sick - incurably and eloquently. Who will become a mirror of the sins of the community.

When Jesus asked the demons, “How many of you?” the demons answered: “Legion.” Legion of sins and evil deeds...

In the meantime, one demon-possessed person was resettled in the catacombs and quickly forgotten about him, just as one forgets about other people’s troubles. Are they strangers?..

Question #3 What did Jesus do?

Imagine that Jesus came to us, modern people, and, having gathered us together, said this.

There is one person whom you all know very well. So, he got very sick. Do you know how he suffers? You say: “We know, we heard, poor, poor thing.”

And Jesus continues: “Would you like him to be completely healed?” You and I answer: “Yes, yes! What a question! He is such a good person!

And then Jesus says: “Do you know how I healed him? Listen."

Here you have a granny’s apartment, which you rent out to tenants, and you have shares. And you were appointed boss, given your own office and increased your salary.

In general, all these things that you have, they have so much evil attached to them, you won’t believe it.

We were silent and said to Jesus: “Get out of our village. Please go away." And turning around, they walked away to their empty barns.

Elena Nazarenko

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Luke, 38, VIII, 26-39. Healing of the Gadarene demoniac

And they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which lies opposite Galilee. When He came ashore, He was met by a man from the city, possessed by demons for a long time, who had not put on clothes, and who lived not in a house, but in tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him and said in a loud voice: What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me. For Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, because it had tormented him for a long time, so that they bound him with chains and bonds, keeping him safe; but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the desert. Jesus asked him: What is your name? He said: legion, because many demons entered into it. And they asked Jesus not to command them to go into the abyss. There was also a large herd of pigs grazing on the mountain; and the demons asked Him to allow them to enter into them. He let them. The demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down a steep slope into the lake and drowned. The shepherds, seeing what had happened, ran and told it in the city and in the villages. And they came out to see what had happened; and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and were horrified. Those who saw them told them how the demoniac was healed. And all the people of the Gadarene region asked Him to leave them, because they were seized with great fear. He entered the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had come out asked Him to be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your house and tell us what God has done for you.” He went and preached throughout the whole city what Jesus had done for him.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The story we have just heard brings us face to face with three different and incompatible situations.

Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary at the Russian Children's clinical hospital in Moscow. "The expulsion of the legion from the Gadarene demoniac."

We see, firstly, the attitude towards the possessed person of the forces of evil, the forces of evil who are trying in every possible way to enslave him, to leave nothing in him that would not be subject to them, that would not belong to them to the end, that they could not use to do your evil.

These demonic forces can be called by all the names of human sin: if only we give power within ourselves to any sin, we become slaves of sin (the Apostle Paul speaks about this in detail). And if we become slaves of sin, then before us is the fate of this person: to live our whole life as a weapon of evil on earth, in madness, in suffering, in the creation of evil.

But behind this there is something more terrible. The demons asked Christ to send them into the swine herd. For Jews, pigs meant uncleanness: the choice of demons to go into the herd of pigs suggests that all the evil that characterizes us, that we create, to which we cleave, to which we give power over ourselves, is precisely defilement and extreme uncleanness.

And we see the limit of this enslavement again in the fate of the pig herd: it died, nothing remained of it. It fulfilled its task and was destroyed. This is the attitude of the forces of evil towards us, towards each of us, towards all of us collectively: towards communities, families, states, religions – towards everyone without exception.

And at the same time we see the attitude of the Savior Christ.

Healing of the Gadarene demoniac. Elena Cherkasova

Before Him is the whole tragedy of the Universe, and He, as if forgetting this tragedy of the Universe, or rather, seeing it embodied, tragically, in one person, leaves everything in order to save this person.

Can we do this? Do we know how to forget about the big tasks that we dream about in order to focus our attention, to give our hearts completely, creatively, tragically, on the cross to the one and only need that we can help?

And the third image is the image of the Gadarene people, who knew the state of this demon-possessed man, saw the horror of his demon-possession and heard that Christ healed him and at what cost: the price was the destruction of their flock. And they came to Christ, asking Him to leave, to leave their borders, to no longer perform miracles that “cost dearly” to them: not even life, not peace, but material things...

This is what they asked: Get away from us! Your miracles, Your Divine love are too expensive for us - go away!

We need to think about ourselves. We can see ourselves in the image of this demoniac, because each of us is in the grip of one or another passion. Who does not have envy, who does not have bitterness, who does not have hatred, who does not have a thousand other sins?

We are all, to one degree or another, possessed, that is, under the power of dark forces, and this is their goal: to take possession of us so that we become nothing more than an instrument of evil, which they want to do and can only do through us, but at the same time do us not only creators of evil, but also sufferers...

Let's think about ourselves in relation to other people: don't we want to possess them? Are we not trying to dominate them, to enslave them, to make them instruments of our will, objects of our desires? Each of us can find in ourselves precisely such properties, such actions, and see such victims around us.

And finally, let us think: we are Christ’s. Will we, being Christ’s, not choose the path of Christ, the path of the cross, the sacrificial path, which can give freedom to others, new life others, if only we tear ourselves away from everything that occupies us in order to pay attention to one real, burning need?

Let's think about it; because the Gospel does not appeal to us only to present us with images; - a call and a challenge: where do you stand, who are you, who are you with?.. Each of us must answer ourselves, and answer God: who are we? Where are we? Amen!

By taming the storm, the Lord demonstrated His Divine power over visible nature, and by expelling a legion of demons from man, He demonstrated this power over all the invisible hellish power of evil spirits. He performed this miracle on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in the country of Gergesin, as the holy evangelist Matthew writes, or the Gadarenes, as the holy evangelists Mark and Luke narrate. This country was so named after two cities: Gerges, the ruins of which are located almost opposite Capernaum, and Gadara, which was further to the south, near the stream Jeromak or Jabbok. Many tomb-caves are still visible in the wild gorges of the desert mountains of Gilead, approaching steep cliffs to the very shore of Lake Galilee. In these gloomy, often vast caves, robbers, of whom there were always many in Palestine, took refuge, as well as various madmen and demoniacs, for whom human society was intolerable. To this country, then inhabited for the most part pagans, and the Lord arrived with the onset of morning after the pacification of the storm.

This storm at sea was terrible; but an even more terrible spectacle of human suffering awaited the merciful Lover of Mankind and His disciples in this country. AND WHEN HE ARRIVED ON THE OTHER SHORE(as soon as He entered the seashore opposite from Capernaum) TO THE COUNTRY OF GERGESI, HE WAS MET, they themselves came out to meet Him, drawn by the invisible power of God, TWO DEMONSITIVES CAME OUT FROM THE GRAVES(from the caves where they were buried). Since ancient times there has been a misconception that the souls of sinners become demons after death; and now some ignorant people believe stories about the shadows of the dead, about people from the other world; In order to strengthen this superstition in the minds of people, demons forced the unfortunate demoniacs to live in coffins, i.e. in caves where the dead were buried, especially since such places were usually considered unclean. The demoniacs who came out to meet the Lord were, as the evangelist says, VERY FIERCE, SO NO ONE DARE TO PASS, it was impossible for anyone to pass safely THAT WAY. One of them was especially fierce, a man famous in the town of Gerges, so that the holy evangelists Mark and Luke, in order to more clearly imagine the extreme suffering of this demoniac and the great miraculous power Lord Jesus, they only talk about this one demoniac in their Gospels, without mentioning the other at all. Saint John Chrysostom says: “The fact that Luke and Mark mention one demon, and Matthew mention two, does not show any disagreement between them. Only then would there be a disagreement if Luke and Mark said that there was no other demoniac at all. It seems to me that Luke only mentioned the one that was the most fierce of them.” They say that this unfortunate man did not wear clothes, that even though he was shackled in iron, he often broke the chains with terrible force and broke the shackles on his hands and feet, that no one could tame him; and he spent day and night in tombs and in mountain gorges, and became so wild, so furious that, driven by a demon through the desert, he screamed furiously and mutilated his body, hitting the stones. Seeing Jesus Christ from afar, he ran to Him, cried out, fell before Him and said in a loud voice: “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You... I conjure You by God, do not torment me!”(; ). To calm the sufferer, help him come to consciousness, collect his thoughts, the Lord asked the demoniac: “What is your name?” But the power of evil took such hold of the unfortunate man’s entire being that he could not remember his real name, and the demons, in awe of the almighty power of the Lord, as if wanting to encourage themselves with their numbers, answered through the mouth of the demoniac: "My name is legion, because we are many". A legion was a detachment of a Roman army from six thousand to ten thousand people; the demons want to say that there are a lot of them, that they constitute a great power... But this power immediately trembles with the power of Christ.

Saint Matthew speaks of the healing of both demoniacs, and therefore omits these details. AND SO, he says, THEY SHOUTED: WHAT DO YOU CARE ABOUT US?, JESUS, GOD'S SON? What do you want to do with us? What do you care about us? Could people living in a pagan country appeal to the unknown Stranger, whom they saw for the first time? Could they on their own call Him by name, and even the Son of God? Moreover, they were beside themselves... It is clear that through their mouths the evil spirits cried out, about which the word of God says that they "believe and tremble"(), who had a presentiment that the Lord would drive them out of the people, but were bound by God’s command - not to drag the unfortunate sufferers into the desert, but to meet the Lord on the seashore. And so, “while people revered Him as a man, the demons, as St. Chrysostom says, came to confess His Divinity, and those who had still remained inattentive when taming the storm at sea, now heard the demons crying out about what the sea had announced to its silence." It was not reverence for the Lord that forced the demons to call Him the Son of God - for them the very presence of Christ was unbearable torment: “being pierced, set on fire, they were invisibly punished and overwhelmed more than the sea,” as Chrysostom puts it. And through the mouths of the people overwhelmed by them, they “confess their enmity, as the same saint says, they cannot say that they have not sinned, they admit that the time of the Last Judgment and condemnation to eternal torment will come for them, and only, as it were, reproach the Lord Jesus,” they complain that He prematurely takes away from them the power to torment people, and thereby subjects them to torture; YOU CAME HERE BEFORE YOUR TIME TO TORTURE US!“The demons begged Him,” says Chrysostom, “and begged Him not to cast them into the abyss. They thought that now the time had come for their eternal punishment. Since the Savior found them committing unbearable cruelties and atrocities, when they tormented His creation, they thought that He would not delay the time of punishment. Thus, those whom iron bonds could not hold back come bound; those who ran through the mountains come out onto the field; those who blocked the path of others stop when they see Him blocking their own path.” Saint Mark says that “They asked Him many times, so that He would not send them out of that country”(), from the country of Gergesin, where pagans lived, and therefore there were demons there great power over people. And Saint Luke says that the demons begged the Lord not to order them to go into the abyss, into the depths of a dark hell, into the prison of spirits, where eternal torment was prepared for them. From this it is clear how terrible the torments of hell are if the demons themselves fear them.

These prayers, these complaints and reproaches of demons that the Lord came to torment them, themselves exposed the absurd blasphemy of the Pharisees, as if the Lord cast out demons by the power of the prince of demons. AWAY FROM THEM(from the possessed) A LARGE HERD OF PIGS GRAZED. The Law of Moses strictly forbade Jews from keeping pigs as unclean animals. Probably this herd belonged to the pagans, the Gergesinians; or maybe the Jews kept the herd, contrary to the Law, for trade with the pagans, delivering, for example, pork to feed the Roman legions. AND THE DEMONS ASKED HIM: IF YOU THROW US OUT, THEN SEND US INTO THE HERD OF PIGS. If you forbid torturing people, then at least allow them to torture pigs. For demons, inexpressible suffering lies in the fact that they cannot harm anyone without God’s permission. AND HE SAID TO THEM: GO. “Why did Christ fulfill the request of the demons? - Saint Chrysostom asks and answers. “He did this not because he was convinced by them, but for many wise purposes. Firstly, to show those freed from them how great the harm caused by these tormentors; secondly, to convince everyone that demons do not even dare to touch pigs without His permission; thirdly, to make it clear that demons would have treated people much more cruelly than with pigs, if in such misfortune they had not been rewarded with the great providence of God, because everyone knows that demons hate us more than dumb animals. Fourthly, so that the death of the pigs will convince everyone that the demons have come out.” So, demons, driven by the power of Christ, came out of the people possessed by them: AND THEY, GOING OUT, LET'S GO TO THE PORK HERD. AND SO, at that very moment, with the fury of rage THE ENTIRE HERD OF PIGS ARRIVED(and there were up to two thousand of them), as St. Mark writes, FROM THE STEP(on a steep descent) AT SEA AND DIED IN THE WATER. This is evil in its nature: it is cunning and self-destructive; insane, blind and suicidal, it can only destroy and will rather perish itself in the general destruction to which it strives. The evil spirits of darkness, in fierce hatred against the King of light - Christ, wanted to arouse indignation in people against Him! “By killing pigs,” says blessed Theophylact“The demons wanted to upset their masters so that they would not accept Christ.” “So, if the demons did not spare the pigs,” says Chrysostom, “then even more so they would have done this to people if the providence of God had not curbed them.” But why did the Lord allow the pigs to die? For the same reason why He now allows the death of livestock, floods, hail, fires and other troubles; in order to convince people that the soul of a person is incomparably higher than a thousand herds of pigs, and a person, taking care of pigs, often completely forgets about his soul.

By depriving the pigs, He seemed to be saying this to the Gergesians; you serve your passions, please your flesh, like pigs; Look how this service of yours to the flesh may end: the demons that have taken possession of your souls will bring you to destruction, like these pigs. “Demons try to bring people into despair,” says Chrysostom, “and rejoice in their destruction. This is what the devil did with Job, but he glorified His servant and turned everything to the head of the devil.” Finally, the Lord allowed demons to destroy unclean animals also in order to expose the Sadducees, who, of course, should have heard about this miracle: they did not believe that there were invisible spirits - the miracle over the demon-possessed showed that these spirits exist, otherwise, - who forced two thousand pigs to throw themselves into the sea?... “It is worthy of note,” says Chrysostom, “that where the name of the Lord was known, there He did not show Himself very much; but where no one knew Him, there He performed glorious miracles in order to attract people to the knowledge of His Divinity.” However, the inhabitants of the Gergesin country were unworthy of such miracles, as can be seen from the subsequent history. THE SHEPHERDS ARE THE SAME grazing pigs, says the evangelist, LET'S RUN; if they were Jews, then they were afraid that the Lord would punish them for an obvious violation of the Law of Moses, and if they were pagans, then how could they answer to the owners of the pigs? AND, COMING TO CITY, TOLD ABOUT EVERYTHING, AND ABOUT THAT, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DEMANDED, they said in Gerges that an unknown Man arrived from Galilee on a boat, that He healed those possessed by demons, and that immediately after that the whole herd of pigs rushed into the sea and drowned. AND SO, THE WHOLE CITY(from small to large) WENT OUT TO MEET JESUS. And how could you not go out and see such a Wonderworker? But if their pigs had not died, then perhaps they would not have come out... Other evangelists say that the Gergesinians saw the demoniac, and maybe both, healed, at the feet of Jesus Christ: they were already dressed, in their right mind and listened meekly to the word of Christ. One could have expected that the Gergesinians, amazed by the miracle, would ask the Lord Jesus to stay with them, as the prudent Samaritans later asked to heal other sick people and teach them the true faith; however, instead they asked for one thing - that the Wonderworker would leave them as soon as possible... AND, SEEING HIM, ASKED, SO THAT HE WILL MOVE FROM THEIR LIMITS. They did not even rejoice at the healing of the demoniac; they felt sorry for their pigs. “Learn from this,” says Blessed Theophylact, “where there is swine life, it is not Christ who lives there, but demons live.” The Apostle Peter once said: “Get away from me, Lord! because I am a sinful man"(), but it was the voice of humble faith, reverent fear from the consciousness of one’s unworthiness.

It was not such fear that seized the Gergesinians. They seemed to reason like this: this Wonderworker is terrible for us, if only we stayed away from Him; Without Him it will be more peaceful to live as we lived before, and we can continue to sin as before. And the Lord withdrew from them, leaving them alone, according to their desire. So sometimes God in His anger listens to His enemies and does not listen to those who love Him. We cannot judge the Gergesinians strictly: they were pagans. But doesn’t the same thing happen to us, sinners, in the time of God’s visit to earthly sorrows and disasters? For example, a terrible deadly disease has appeared: it is gathering its harvest around us; our heart trembles with fear; we ask the Lord, so that His righteous wrath may pass by... But is our desire strong, our heartfelt promise to God - to repent of previous sins and begin a new life according to the commandments of God? Isn’t there, on the contrary, hidden in the very depths of our hearts a secret desire to quickly calm down from the fear of death, to close our eyes again and fall asleep in the usual order of our former sinful life?.. “Let us note the meekness of Jesus Christ,” says Saint Chrysostom, “combined with power. When the inhabitants of that country, so favored by Him, forced Him to leave, He withdrew without resistance, leaving those who had shown themselves unworthy of His teaching, giving them as mentors those freed from demons and herding pigs, so that they would learn from them about everything that had happened.” What a wonderful lesson for everyone who does good to their neighbor, but does not see gratitude from their neighbor for this goodness! The less gratitude you receive for good from people, the more valuable your good will be in the eyes of God. He who strenuously seeks gratitude from people is not a benefactor, but only a lender and even a huckster. "And you will be blessed", says the Lord, “that they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous”(). Saint Luke narrates that the demoniac healed by the Lord, and perhaps both, begged the Lord to allow them not to be separated from Him. Perhaps the demoniac was afraid that the demons would take possession of him again when the Lord was not with them; or from a feeling of gratitude in his heart, he wished to be a constant disciple of his Healer. But the Lord entrusted him with a great and holy task: "return to your house", - He told him, - “and tell me what God has done for you”(). The Lord left the Gadarenes, who turned out to be unworthy of His presence, but He did not want to leave them without leaving a witness among them. This witness was supposed to preach the grace and omnipotence of the Lord, who was ready to heal all the Gadarenes from their spiritual illnesses, just as He healed the demoniac. And he, this healed one, unquestioningly fulfilled the will of the Lord: "he went and preached" Not only "but to the whole city", from which he himself came, but also throughout the Decapolis, “what Jesus did for him”(). And everyone marveled at the miracle of God performed on him.

“No one is forbidden,” says Chrysostom, “to understand this story in a mysterious sense. People who are like pigs sinful passions, are not only caught by demons, but also thrown into the abyss by them. Thus, when a voluptuous person is captivated by all bodily beauty, then he is no different from a possessed person. Who can bind and tame someone so shameless and furious, who is never in himself? What can we say about the money lover? Isn't he like that too? Who can ever tie it? The demon, although he despised people, obeyed the command of Christ and immediately left the body. And such a one does not obey the command of Christ, although every day he hears His words: “You cannot serve God and mammon” ()".